"First ballot Hall of Famer" is a little trickier than it used to be. There's a lot of guys waiting to get in that should've made it in long ago. Still, when you're one of the ten greatest ever at your position, you should definitely make it in first ballot.

redneckofsc wrote:But Ripken on the other hand, I have never hard anything negative at all about him. He is one of the nicest, humble guys to every play the game

They don't put "nice" and "humble" on the HOF bust. There are players who had better careers than Ripken that were assholes. Does that make them less of a HOFer than him? No, but they'll garner a lower percentage of votes. Conversely, some asshole writer would use my argument of "other better players" to not have voted for him on the 1st go round.

You don't have to wait until Pudge is up to identify who the true idiots/a-holes are. It's in 2014, when Maddux is up for the first ballot.

BTW, next year's vote is the most interesting...ever?

You've got a couple of guys who each have a solid base of support (Morris, Bagwell, Smith, Raines) and a few Hall of Very Good players who won't quite make it (Trammell, Martinez, McGriff, Walker, Murphy, B. Williams). Biggio, Piazza, and Schilling are on there for the first time.

And then there's these guys:McGwirePalmeiroBondsClemensPiazzaSosa

...and, lastly, a few Cleveland sentimental favorits in Lofton and Sandy.

I highly doubt McGwire gets in since he was a one dimensional player and a known steroids user.

Sosa likely won't get in.

I still think Clemens gets in.

Piazza likely gets in.

Bonds is going to be the real test.

IF Clemens is in, Bonds is in. He might not get there immediately, but I think he will eventually.

I meant to delete Piazza from that second list, since I don't actually remember him being on the suspect list for roids. In any case, he's in.

That's the problem with the steroids era...it would make sense that Piazza is a PED guy, but I'm not aware of any actual evidence to that effect. So I end up agnostic, and apply a strike (and not a total disqualification) against steroids guys. YMMV.